On if he sees tonight's game as a missed opportunity or a confidence builder:

I thought a confidence builder for sure. I liked our game. I didn't like that we wouldn't shoot the puck. We had so many opportunities to shoot and we wouldn't, we wanted to pass it into the net instead of shoot it into the net. I thought Wilson did a good job of just doing that – you just turn and you throw it on net. That's playoff hockey. Things bounce to somebody and it goes in or you get a second chance. I didn't think we did a good job of that. I liked a lot of things about our game. Obviously, I didn't like being down 5-on-3, but other than that I didn't mind our game.

On Andersen's performance:

I thought Freddy was really good and then he would probably like to have that [overtime goal] back. He gave us an opportunity so I don't think you can argue with that.

On the play of the defencemen:

I thought Rielly might have had his best game this year. He was really solid for us. Hunwick was solid. Carrick and [Marincin] gave us good minutes – Marty hasn't played in a long time and I thought he did a good job for us.

On how they fared matching up against Ovechkin:

Let me look here – it looks alright, but it looks like Williams had a good night though. You know what I mean? They got one on the broken play on the 5-on-3, we had the penalty killed obviously and [Brown] lifted Polak's stick or whatever. We made a mistake on the kill to get shorthanded though so we'll fix that. I thought that was fine. Boyle gave us good faceoff opportunities and I thought that was important as well. I thought [Martin] was physical. Lots of good things.

On how the team handled the hostile environment:

I think they probably thought it was fun. I kept trying to tell them we've got good players, we're allowed to play at a high level. We've got some really good players, play. You don't want to watch them, play. I think if you're [Matthews] or you're Mitch or you're [Nylander] or [Brown] or those guys, let's play. You don't have to watch them; you can play good.

On if the team learned about the slim margin for error in the playoffs:

Yeah, I don't think they had to learn that though. I think they know that. I don't think that's a big thing. I think what they found out is you can skate with them, you can be physical, their D give the puck to you when you're physical just like if they're physical with us. I just think it's important to get a taste and understand what the game is like. Now it's important that we leave here 1-1.

On if they surprised Washington with the fast start:

I don't think so. I just think it's the playoffs and our big thing is we've got to get a game here because we've got to keep it tight so they stay tight. If they get too loose it'll make it too easy for them.

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David Alter covers the Maple Leafs for The Athletic. David has previously reported on the Leafs for the National Post, Sportsnet (The Fan 590) and theScore.com. He has also worked at Twitter as part of the Canadian team that launched Twitter Moments. Follow David on Twitter @dalter.